Retro Radio Memories: Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed (1983)

Due to a little technical issue…
…the normally scheduled Retro Radio Memories Podcast will be published tomorrow morning but thankfully that doesn’t mean we can’t share some glorious radio drama, right?

In this case we have an episode of Bradbury 13 entitled Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed which was originally broadcast back in 1983, with not just Ray Bradbury himself acting as the greeter for the show but the legendary Paul Frees (The Player, The Haunted Mansion) as narrator for the series’ 13 episodes. Appropriate number.

Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed originally saw pring in Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1949 under the title The Naming of the Names. Ten years later and the story would get a name change when it was included in A Medicine for Melancholy and again in the 1966 collection S Is For Space, which is where I first read the short story.

The synopsis revolves around the Bittering Family who have with many other Humans left behind the Earth to travel to Mars to help colonize the windswept red planet. The problem is that a little after setting up, Harry who is the head of the Family finds himself wishing they could uproot and return to Earth…that option is taken away however after they hear news of New York City being destroyed, a nuclear detonation taking with it the regular rocket shipments as well as the chance to leave. The settlers continue their task of terraforming the angry red planet…but then strange things begin to happen…the peaches and carrots they’ve planted have started mutating…their cow begins to grow a horn from it’s head..and to Harry’s horror he realizes that the Humans are starting to change as well.

So please join us for Retro Radio Memories and learn of the Bittering Family and how Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed.

Searching through the alleys for useful knowledge in the city of Nostalgia. Huge cinema fanatic and sometimes carrier of the flame for the weirding ways of 80s gaming, toys, and television. When his wife lets him he is quite happy sitting in the corner eating buckets of beef jerky.